Saturday, February 5, 2011

Over the years I've posted over 25 Silver Surfer illustrations...here are five of my all time favorites.

Jack Kirby, the co-creator of Norrin Radd, of course is the grand master of drawing this character. While I love a lot of the Fantastic Four covers, this illustration, inked by Al Gordon, knocked me out when I saw it on Al's Flickr page.

John Buscema drew the Surfer in a more sleek, stylized way...in truth, I saw Buscema's version first and regarded it as the model. It took me quite a while to appreciate Kirby's approach. But my all time favorite Buscema drawing is this cover to Silver Surfer #3, where he fought Thor on the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard.

John Byrne only drew the Silver Surfer a few times, most notably in this 1982 Silver Surfer one-shot special. I thought this was a great story, wrapping up several years of continuity, and it was the first time that Byrne had worked with inker Tom Palmer. The cover is magnificient--the Surfer longingly gazes at the cosmos in the way that Jeff Spicoli looks at the waves in Malibu.

Alan Davis has had a few opportunites to draw the Surfer as well, in various mini-series throughout the years. I wish Marvel would commission him to do a new mini-series, because he gets this character right every time. I loved this pin-up that Davis did, where the Surfer sits by himself in space, pondering the Earth. That was the essence of the Silver Surfer in his early days, an outsider, separated from humanity but always drawn to save it.

Finally, here is a Joe Jusko painting that I believe was used for a Marvel poster back in the 1980s, a colorful and vivid rendering of the Surfer's intergalactic wandering.

There are many more image of Norrin Radd awaiting you--click on all my posts tagged Silver Surfer! May you always fly above the cosmos, onward and upward, true believers! Nuff Said.